Racism is the focus of full-day workshop at Creating Change

From NGLTF "Creating Change", Denver
Wednesday - Part 2


"We are not living in a post-racism world," our leader clearly stated. Barack Obama has stated that his election marked a milestone in moving away from racism, but not the finish line. We were told that if we were not on board with the fact that white supremacy is not an issue, we were in the worng group.

The full day institute that opened Creating Change is focused solely on Institutionalized Racism and why it is important to us all.

Six session are being held, two for beginners(1-2 years), two for intermediate (3-5 years) and two for advanced (6+ years) of leadership in LGBT organizing. I went for the middle. After the opening statement and reflection on my reaction to Prop 8, I almost moved... but I have been at this for a long time. I was ready to own any doubts and commit to accpeting the premace in as far as I could as a white man. I am glad I stayed.

My session started with the identification of institutions. Two that I am involved directly with were included: education and religion. We then talked about specific example of white supremacy/privilege in the organization that we serve. Small groups were then established to give examples of specific ways in which organizations were working to end racism.

This is where we broke for lunch... I am headed back from the conclusion.

Two thoughts:

1) This is clearly a group of well intentioned people. We know what the right thing to do is and are looking for ways to exist in co-support of POC.

2) What about starting of a national C and HR conference with a similar full day dedicated to heterosexism?